1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improved electrical equipment systems and particularly to apparatus for automatically and simply adapting such systems for use with one of a plurality of line power magnitude availabilities.
2. Description of Prior Art
Some foreign countries have power requirements and specifications different from those in the United States. In certain countries of Europe, for example, power outputs of 220 volts and 240 volts at 50 cps (hertz) are available and widely used. In the United States, there are certain instances where similar voltage magnitudes (rms values) are used. Therefore, the electrical equipment used under these power conditions must be designed for such use.
In the prior art, "designing" for such use generally meant the employment of a suitable step-down (or step-up) transformer for the intended purpose. Alternatively, a general purpose transformer with multiple voltage-taps could be used, by hard wiring to the appropriate taps for the voltage selected. In either case, the prior art required working on the electrical equipment or on the AC Power input circuit in order to "tailor-make" the system to the particular power or voltage availability intended. Thus, some production efforts were necessarily directed to maintaining separate inventories, records, etc. of the variously tailored equipments. Elimination of this effort is a feature of the present invention.